A Tang Dynasty Scroll That Crossed the Sea
Look closely at the character 民 (min, "the people") anywhere in this scroll and you will find its final stroke missing. The omission is deliberate. The copyist was honoring a taboo on writing the personal name of Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin, who ruled China until 649. That single absent brushstroke, repeated wherever the character appears, is one of the clues that date this manuscript to the Tang dynasty, roughly the seventh century.
The scroll, designated a National Treasure of Japan on June 9, 1951, contains chapter 57 of the biographies section of the Hanshu (Book of Han), the official history of the Former Han dynasty compiled by Ban Gu (32–92 CE). Chapter 57 is devoted to Yang Xiong (53 BCE–18 CE), a court poet and philosopher, and preserves four of his celebrated fu rhapsodies, including "Sweet Springs Palace" and a pointed response to the ancient poem "Encountering Sorrow." The opening of the scroll has been lost, but the end title reading "Yang Xiong Biography, Chapter 57" survives intact.
Today the single handscroll belongs to the Kyoto National Museum, which acquired it in 2015. It is the only Tang-period manuscript of the Hanshu with the authoritative commentary of Yan Shigu known to survive.
Why This Manuscript Matters
The Hanshu circulated for centuries with competing annotations until 641, when the scholar Yan Shigu (581–645), working on the orders of Crown Prince Li Chengqian, sifted the earlier commentaries and added his own judgments. His edition became the standard text. This scroll carries that commentary, each note introduced by the phrase "Shigu says," and was copied within living memory of the project itself.
The handwriting tells its own story. The characters are tall and taut, written in the manner of Ouyang Xun (557–641), one of the most influential calligraphers of the early Tang court. Scholars also point to further taboo omissions in the scroll: the characters 淵 and 世, names associated with the founding emperor Li Yuan and with Taizong, likewise lack strokes. Taken together, the style and the taboos place the copying firmly in the Tang period.
Almost every early text of the Hanshu known today comes from printed editions of the Song dynasty or later. A manuscript written in Tang China, centuries before printing reshaped the transmission of the classics, offers a rare direct view of what the text looked like in the hands of its first readers.
Marks of a Thousand Years of Reading
The scroll did not sit untouched. A colophon at its end records that on the 21st day of the fifth month of Tenryaku 2, the year 948 in the Western calendar, a scholar named Fujiwara no Yoshisuke finished adding reading marks. By the mid-Heian period, then, the manuscript had already reached Japan and was being studied at close range.
Those reading marks are visible across the text: small vermillion symbols called wokototen that guided Japanese readers through Chinese word order, ink glosses, notations in white pigment, and faint impressions made with a kakuhitsu, a pointed stylus that scores the paper without ink. Each layer represents a different reader, a different century, a different way of wrestling with a foreign classic.
Later traces continue the chain. A note dated 1453 records that the monk Mii Seison received the scroll from the Kazan'in family, a branch of the court nobility. Seals of the Meiji-era sinologist Takezoe Shin'ichirō (1842–1917) and his student Shimada Kan appear at the beginning and end. When you stand before this object, you are looking at thirteen centuries of continuous scholarship compressed onto a single roll of paper.
Seeing the Scroll, and What Surrounds It
The manuscript is not on permanent view. Like most calligraphy of this age, it appears only in periodic rotations at the Kyoto National Museum, typically in the calligraphy galleries of the Heisei Chishinkan Wing. Past showings include the museum's landmark National Treasures exhibition in 2017 and a 2023 display of Japanese and Chinese masterworks of calligraphy. Check the museum's exhibition schedule before planning a visit specifically around this piece.
The museum itself rewards a trip regardless. The red-brick Meiji Kotokan, completed in 1895, faces a fountain garden with a cast of Rodin's The Thinker, and the modern Heisei Chishinkan presents rotating selections from one of Japan's deepest collections of East Asian art.
Directly across the street stands Sanjūsangen-dō, the 120-meter hall lined with 1,001 statues of Kannon. A ten-minute walk north leads to Toyokuni Shrine and the giant temple bell of Hōkō-ji, famous for the inscription that gave Tokugawa Ieyasu his pretext for war in 1614. The ceramics workshops and the Kawai Kanjirō Memorial Museum in the nearby Gojōzaka district make an easy detour, and Chishaku-in temple, with its Hasegawa Tōhaku wall paintings, lies a short stroll to the east. Allow a half day for the neighborhood.
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Q&A
- Can I see the Hanshu Yang Xiong Biography scroll anytime at the Kyoto National Museum?
- No. Works on paper of this age are displayed only for limited periods to protect them from light. The scroll appears in occasional rotations, so check the museum's online exhibition schedule before your visit.
- Who was Yang Xiong?
- Yang Xiong (53 BCE–18 CE) was a poet and philosopher who served at the Former Han court. He is best known for his ornate fu rhapsodies and for philosophical works modeled on the Confucian classics. Chapter 57 of the Hanshu records his life and preserves four of his poems.
- How do scholars know the scroll was copied in the Tang dynasty?
- Two kinds of evidence converge: the calligraphy follows the style of the early Tang master Ouyang Xun, and characters used in the personal names of Tang emperors, such as 民 and 淵, are written with strokes deliberately omitted, a taboo practice observed during their dynasty.
- What are the red marks visible on the text?
- They are wokototen, reading marks added in Japan to help readers parse classical Chinese. A colophon states that the marking was completed in 948 by Fujiwara no Yoshisuke, which also proves the scroll had reached Japan by the mid-Heian period.
- Is photography allowed when the scroll is on display?
- Policies vary by exhibition at the Kyoto National Museum. Photography is often permitted in parts of the collection galleries but is usually prohibited for special exhibitions and loaned works, so follow the signage posted beside each object.
Basic Information
| Name | Hanshu Yang Xiong Biography, Chapter 57 (Kanjo Yoyuden Dai-gojunana) |
|---|---|
| Designation | National Treasure (calligraphy and classical books), designated June 9, 1951 |
| Quantity | 1 handscroll |
| Country and period | China, Tang dynasty (7th century, estimated); reading marks added in Japan in 948 |
| Custodian | Kyoto National Museum, 527 Chayamachi, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto |
| Owner | Independent Administrative Institution National Institutes for Cultural Heritage |
| Public access | Displayed periodically in collection or special exhibitions; not on permanent view |
| Access | Approx. 7 min walk from Keihan Shichijo Station; city bus to Hakubutsukan Sanjusangendo-mae |
References
- 国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）漢書楊雄伝第五十七
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/591
- e国宝（国立文化財機構）漢書楊雄伝第五十七
- https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?content_base_id=101356&content_part_id=0&content_pict_id=0&langId=ja
- 文化遺産オンライン 漢書楊雄伝第五十七
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/517957
- 京都国立博物館 館蔵品データベース 漢書楊雄伝第五十七
- https://knmdb.kyohaku.go.jp/29180.html
Last verified: 2026.06.11